Little Big Man is a 1970 (1970 in film) American Western film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the 1964 (1964 in literature) novel by Thomas Berger (Thomas Berger (US novelist)). It is a picaresque (Picaresque novel) comedy and drama about a Caucasian (Caucasian race) boy raised by the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century. The film is largely concerned with contrasting the lives of American pioneers (Settler) and Native Americans (Native Americans in the United States) throughout the progression of the boys life.

The movie stars Dustin Hoffman, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey and Richard Mulligan. It is considered a Revisionist Western, with Native Americans receiving a sympathetic treatment uncommon for Western (Western (genre)) films in previous decades. Many of the United States Cavalry soldiers are depicted as villains.

Despite its satiric and comedic approach, the film has tragic (tragedy) elements and a clear social commentary about prejudice and injustice. Little Big Man is considered an example of anti-establishment films (New Hollywood) of the period, subtly protesting Americas involvement in the Vietnam War by portraying the U.S. Military negatively. In her book Conversations with Pauline Kael, Kael says of the Vietnam Wars depiction in American films, "It doesnt look at the facts of war, of what we were doing there. And that was the attitude of a lot of American films during the war years, even Westerns that deal with an early period of American life. The Americans are racists who shoot up the Indians for the careless joy of it-Little Big Man, for instance. It was a sophisticated criticism. The Indians, for instance, would have Vietnamese faces. The key girl we saw killed in slow motion in Little Big Man was definitely an Oriental." Arthur Penn has also stated in an interview featured on a TCM (Turner Classic Movies) promo that elements of the film were comments on American genocide (Population_history_of_American_indigenous_peoples#Genocide_debate) depicting events "closest to The Holocaust."